1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a skate shoe, consisting of a shoe, through the sole of which a bore runs horizontally, into which, from both sides, a half-axle in each case is inserted, at the outer end of which a wheel in each case is fixed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A skate shoe differs from the roller skates and inliners that have been known for decades, and in which at least two rollers are arranged one behind the other over the entire length of the shoe, in that no rollers are present in the frontal region of the shoe, but only in the rear region.
It is known that only a single roller is inserted in the underside of the heel; however, also widespread are two rollers, which are fixed on both sides of the heel. By this means, the user of the skate shoe can either run on the front portion of the shoes, e.g. during acceleration, the rear portion of the shoe with the rollers having no contact with the running surface, or the user can lift the tips of the toes and roll on the rollers in the rear portion of the shoes, in a similar way to a roller skate.
The user can thus rapidly change between walking, running or rolling. As a consequence, between the running surface of the shoe and the rolling surface of the wheels, with the feet in a normal posture, the height difference must not be too great, so that the angle of the required pivot of the shoe remains small during changeover from running to rolling, and vice versa.
To choose the diameters of the rollers as great as possible, so that the stability is as large as possible and smaller obstructions can be rolled over, the axle must be as high possible. Since the axle cannot cross through the interior space of the shoe, the remaining alternative for fastening is that the axle must pass through the shoe sole.
This opens the possibility of designing the shoe as a normal sports or street shoe, as a result of which, as a further consequence, it follows that the users often want to completely remove the rollers, so that the shoe can be used as a normal running shoe or sport shoe.
For the removal of the wheels and dismounting of the axle, numerous proposals exist in the prior art, which, however, have several disadvantages associated with them.
For example, WO 2005/120664 discloses designs that permit folding away of the axles into the underside of the shoe. For this purpose, recesses are necessary, which very rapidly become dirty, and thereby make the change from running shoe to roller shoe considerably more difficult or even impossible.
An alternative are screw connections, which must be released to dismount the axle and wheels, which requires an additional tool. The disadvantage is that this tool must be procured and kept ready. The most unpleasant things for the use are the repeated application of the tool and the long times for mounting and dismounting.
Also known are proposals in which splints, bars or pins are inserted in the axles or in axial elements. A handicap is that the connecting parts can be covered against dirt on the running surface and thereby the mounting and dismounting at least hindered or even made impossible. This disadvantage is that these connecting elements can loosen, which raises the risk of falling and the loss of the elements.